Confessed Upper Merion wife-killer Rafael Robb granted parole

COURTHOUSE — An ex-University of Pennsylvania professor who pleaded guilty to bludgeoning his wife to death with an exercise bar more than six years ago is set to go free.

Confessed wife killer Rafael Robb was granted parole more than two months ago, but it came as news to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Wednesday.

Robb, a resident of Upper Merion and a former professor of game theory at the University of Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2007, following a plea deal negotiated between Robb’s attorney and county prosecutors, led by then-District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr.

A year later, Robb was sentenced to the maximum penalty under the guidelines — five to 10 years in prison.

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Ferman said that in her 20 years as a prosecutor, this is only the second time she has asked the state parole board to reconsider a decision. She said she learned about Robb’s release, slated for Jan. 28, from the brother of the victim, Ellen Robb.

“I did that because I think this was the wrong decision at the wrong time and that they did not fully consider all of the issues surrounding this case,” Ferman said.

Ellen Robb was killed just before Christmas in 2006 as she was wrapping presents in her kitchen. Prosecutors alleged the defendant spun a web of lies to cast suspicion away from himself and onto a fabricated assailant who, he said, was burglarizing the Robb household.

“I was there the night this happened, at the crime scene, and I saw how horrific this was,” said Ferman. “This defendant butchered his wife. When you consider the violence, the brutality, the horror of this crime, you look at the sentence and you say, this is the guy who should do 10 (years). For the worst of the worst, five to 10 should mean 10.”

Leo Dunn, assistant director of the Office of Policy, Legislative Affairs and Communications for the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (PBPP), said he has been in correspondence with the county district attorney’s since Robb was denied early parole in late 2011.

Dunn said the board’s decision is based on eight factors ­ — the nature of the crime and the defendant’s entire criminal history; information relating to the character and background of the offender; notes from the testimony and sentencing hearing; the physical, mental and behavioral condition and history of the offender; whether the offender has a history of family violence; recommendations of the sentencing judge and the prosecuting attorney; recommendations from the victim’s family; and recommendations from the warden or superintendent of the facility where the offended is incarcerated.

“When someone comes up on their minimum, we send a letter to the judge and to the district attorney asking for input. That is taken into consideration,” said Dunn.“Everything was there when the board made their decision. They have to look at the totality of the circumstances and decide whether this is the right time to parole this individual or not. The board makes over 20,000 decisions a year.”

“This criminal should serve his full sentence,” said Gary Gregory, Ellen Robb’s brother. “For someone like this to get paroled after only serving five years is unfathomable. The heinous nature of the crime, the fact that he led law enforcement agencies on a wild goose chase and has shown zero remorse sends absolutely the wrong message to victims who endure domestic violence.

“She was literally about to be picked up and we were going to celebrate her 50th birthday. Instead of her day of emancipation, I see them rolling her into an ambulance.”

Ferman called Robb a cunning and calculating man who attacked his wife, from whom he was becoming estranged, in a fit of rage, rather than negotiating a rational divorce settlement.

Stipulations of Robb’s parole include restrictions on having any direct or indirect contact with the victim’s family, random drug tests, mental health evaluations and proof of an active job search.